Free Republic

A federal judge has overruled prosecutors and sided with a Jan. 6 defendant by refusing to hand down a prison sentence during sentencing. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden showed compassion for Nicholas Rodean of Frederick, Maryland. McFadden ruled that Rodean, who suffers from Aspergers, will not have to do years in prison and sentenced him to 240 days of home confinement and 5 years of probation. Washington Post reporter Tom Jackman detailed what happened in the court: “Just watched an amazing sentencing of Jan. 6 defendant Nicholas Rodean, who is on the autism spectrum with Asperger’s Syndrome. “He smashed...

Dr. Anthony Fauci and other White House officials must testify under oath in a lawsuit alleging the Biden administration colluded with Facebook and Twitter to suppress free speech regarding coronavirus, a federal court ordered on Friday. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry sued the Biden administration in May 2022, arguing that the White House – and especially Fauci as Chief Medical Advisor to the President – were essentially making Facebook and Twitter arms of the Biden administration, suppressing content that criticized lockdowns, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and related stories. The case argued that under Norwood...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — For the second time in about a month, a lawsuit challenging Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” legislation restricting teaching on gender identity and sexual orientation in schools has been dismissed by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger in Orlando on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by LGBTQ students, parents and their families — as well as several civil rights groups — and refused their request for a preliminary injunction to stop the law from being implemented. The judge gave the plaintiffs until Nov. 3 to file an amended lawsuit if they desired. The lawsuit...

The Empire State's latest gun-control law was dealt another setback in federal court today. Judge John Sinatra of the Western District of New York, a Trump appointee, found the state's total ban on licensed gun-carry inside places of worship is unconstitutional. He issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the provision to go into effect immediately and remain in effect until he decides on a request for a preliminary injunction. Judge Sinatra said the state's gun ban in churches violates the Second Amendment rights of New Yorkers...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday invalidated a ruling by a lower court on a Pennsylvania case that involved the counting of undated mail-in ballots, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.The Supreme Court ruled on a decision that the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made in May in a case involving the 2021 election of Judge Zachary Cohen, ordering the state to count 257 mail-in ballots that lacked a necessary date on the return envelope.The lower court ruled that the date requirement was "immaterial" and said there was no reason to exclude the ballots that had previously been set aside due...

A federal appeals court on Wednesday said the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy violates U.S. immigration law, dealing a blow to an Obama-era program that provides deportation protection and work permits to nearly 600,000 immigrant "Dreamers" who lack legal status. A three-judge panel for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded the Obama administration did not have the legal authority to create DACA in 2012, affirming a July 2021 ruling from a federal judge in Texas who barred the Biden administration from enrolling new immigrants in the decade-old program. Despite its conclusion, the appeals court did not order...

A federal appellate judge confirmed that he will no longer consider graduates of Yale Law School for clerkships, citing the school's alleged penchant for "cancellation of views." Judge James C. Ho of the New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeal spoke to the Kentucky Chapters Conference of the Federalist Society last week and openly criticized the so-called intolerant practices trumpeted by Yale Law and its graduates. "Yale not only tolerates the cancellation of views — it actively practices it," said Ho, a University of Chicago School of Law graduate who was nominated to his federal judiciary post by then-President Donald...

A sharply divided 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel has ruled that a Texas judge may start the day with prayer, overturning a decision from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

A federal law prohibiting people under felony indictment from buying firearms is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Texas has concluded, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly expanded gun rights.

Two different federal courts, in two different Circuit Courts of appeal, have refused to grant preliminary injunctions against the implementation of the ATF “Final Rule.” The Final Rule completely changes the definition of a firearm in Federal law. On August 23, in the United States Court for the Eastern District of North Dakota, in the Eighth Circuit, Judge Peter D. Welte refused to grant a preliminary injunction against the massive changes to federal law proposed in the “Final Rule” put forward by the Biden Administration, through the ATF.On August 24, 2022, the District Court for the Galveston Division of the...

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, ordered the government to quickly produce documents after it was sued by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri over alleged collusion with Big Tech firms such as Facebook. The initial tranche of discovery, released on Aug. 31, revealed that more than 50 government officials across a dozen agencies were involved in applying pressure to social media companies to censor users.... . .. But some of the officials refused to provide any answers or answer all questions posed by the plaintiffs. Among them: Fauci, who serves as director of the National Institute...

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the city of Louisville, Kentucky, cannot ban a Christian photographer from limiting her wedding photography business to opposite-sex couples. In the lawsuit which Petapixel has previously reported on, photographer Chelsey Nelson challenged a Louisville law that required her to take photographs and blog online for same-sex weddings.Louisville’s 20-year-old “Fairness Ordinance” prevents discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. However, the lawsuit, filed on behalf of wedding photographer Chelsey Nelson by the conservative advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, alleges that the city’s law infringes on Nelson’s freedom of religion and speech. Beaton ruled that the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Maryland man affiliated with the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Monday to more than four years in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol, where he encountered Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer as his armed security detail led the New York Democrat to safety. Joshua Pruitt, 40, was one of the few Capitol rioters to come face-to-face with a member of Congress during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a mob of Donald Trump supporters, according to federal prosecutors. “One look at Pruitt, and the leader of Senator Schumer’s security detail immediately saw the...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal ruling that gender dysphoria is covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act could help block conservative political efforts to restrict access to gender-affirming care, advocates and experts say. A panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week became the first federal appellate court in the country to find that the 1990 landmark federal law protects transgender people who experience anguish and other symptoms as a result of the disparity between their assigned sex and their gender identity. The ruling could become a powerful tool to challenge legislation restricting access to medical...

A federal court denied a petition for rehearing in a case surrounding United Airlines’ vaccine mandate — one judge accusing the company of “coerc[ing] its employees into violating their religious beliefs.” Judges for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, widely considered the most conservative federal court, voted 13-4 on Thursday to deny a rehearing. The court also denied United Airlines’ request to vacate a panel opinion from February, which held that the mandate inflicted irreparable harm and remanded the case to district court. Trump-appointed Judge James Ho penned a concurring opinion, admonishing the airline for creating...

A judge in Tennessee has temporarily barred two federal agencies from enforcing directives issued by President Joe Biden’s administration that extended protections for LGBTQ people in schools and workplaces. U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. in an order on Friday ruled for the 20 state attorneys general who sued last August claiming the Biden administration directives infringe on states’ right to enact laws that, for example, prevent students from participating in sports based on their gender identity or requiring schools and businesses to provide bathrooms and showers to accommodate transgender people. Atchley, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2020, agreed...

A District Court judge in Ohio granted a temporary injunction Thursday on the Air Force's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all of the branch's members requesting a religious exemption. U.S. District Court Judge Matthew McFarland, of the Southern District of Ohio, granted the 14-day injunction in the case of Doster v. Kendall, giving the government seven days to respond and explain "why this Court should not grant a class-wide preliminary injunction," according to the court order. The injunction applies to the entire Air Force and Space Force, including the Air Force Reserve, which submitted a Religious Accommodation Request. No punishment, discipline,...

A federal court has granted the request of two attorneys general for discovery and documents from top Biden officials and social media honchos so they can to get to the bottom of their collusion efforts to suppress and censor free speech. In May, Attorneys General Eric Schmidt of Missouri and Jeff Landry of Louisiana filed suit against eight high-ranking Biden Administration officials, including Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, for allegedly colluding with social media giants to suppress freedom of speech under the pretense of combatting “misinformation.” 🚨BREAKING: Missouri and Louisiana just filed suit against Joe Biden, Jen...

Trump White House aide’s bid to delay case due to Jan. 6 panel hearings is denied. A federal judge on Monday eviscerated nearly all of Steve Bannon’s defenses against a charge that he criminally defied a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee, leaving the longtime Donald Trump ally with few options to fight the contempt of Congress case against him. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols also denied Bannon’s bid to postpone for three months the jury trial set to open next Monday, rejecting defense arguments that such a delay was warranted due to intense media coverage around the ongoing...

A judge issued a temporary block to a university policy that censored three Christian students who had expressed opposition to same-sex marriage on religious grounds. Students Peter Perlot, Mark Miller and Ryan Alexander sued the University of Idaho over a policy in which they were barred from talking with a student about their views on same-sex marriage. The three belong to the University of Idaho chapter of the Christian Legal Society, which holds traditional views on the definition of marriage and sexual ethics. In an order released last week, Chief U.S. District Judge David C. Nye issued a preliminary injunction...